John Carl Walden (born 7 January 1960) is an American businessman and the Former Chief Executive of

Home Retail Group Home Retail Group plc was a home and general merchandise retailer based in the United Kingdom. It was the parent company of Argos and Habitat, and once owned the do it yourself chain Homebase before selling it to the Australian retailer Wesfarme ...

Early life

Walden was born in Chicago, Illinois. He received his J.D. from

Chicago-Kent College of Law Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school affiliated with the Illinois Institute of Technology. It is the second oldest law school in the state of Illinois. It is ranked 91st among U.S. law schools, and its trial advocacy program is ranked in ...

at the

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

in 1986, and his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1994.

Career

In 1990, Walden began his retail career as Chief Operating Officer of Peapod. In 1999, he joined Best Buy as the President of its Internet and direct channels division. He then became the company's Executive Vice President of Human Capital and Leadership and, subsequently, the Executive Vice President of its Customer Business Group. After Best Buy, Walden moved to

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, where he acted as Chief Customer Officer and Executive Vice President. Afterward, he served as the President and CEO of Inversion Inc. and as Chief Executive Officer of Activeion Cleaning Solutions. He became Managing Director of Argos on 1 February 2012 before joining Home Retail Group as its Chief Executive Officer on 14 March 2014. In 2016, it was announced that Walden would be stepping down as the CEO of Home Retail Group once

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

acquired the business. In November 2018, Walden was hired as Chairman of Holland & Barrett. In 2019, it was announced that Walden would replace Greg Hodder as chairman of

Majestic Wine Majestic Wine is Great Britain’s largest specialist retailer of wine. The company employs over 1,400 staff nationwide, and operates more than 200 stores in the United Kingdom. The business is headquartered in Watford and has a distribution cen ...

Personal life

Walden is married, has five children, and lives in Chicago.

References

External links

Home Retail Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walden, John 1960 births American retail chief executives Living people